A drill was held at the North County Recreation District (NCRD) on May 3. The NCRD is one of the EVCNB emergency shelters in the Nehalem Bay area.

The goals tested in the exercise were:

Activation Notification prior to Event
Registration Process (Client & Patient)
Communication (GMRS, HAM with Winlink & Starlink)
Feeding Support from Nehalem Bay United Methodist Church (NBUMC) to shelter clients at NCRD
MRC within the Emergency Shelter - Roles & MRC Trailer Orientation

The exercise scenario included a severe storm with no power, roads blocked, major flooding, no phones or cell tower availability. “Activation” is requested by either a City or County Government for an emergency shelter to be opened. Appropriate pre-established sites are identified, designated teams are activated. For this scenario, Nehalem NCRD shelter was selected. The leadership of Nehalem NCRD, Manzanita Calvary Bible Church and Wheeler City Hall have made a commitment to open their doors as emergency shelters for their community if requested by an authorizing entity. The shelters can be opened as Community Shelters and transition to Red Cross if needed. EVCNB is a resource and trains volunteers to work in various roles: Shelter, Communications, CERT, Prepare Your Neighborhood, Medical Reserve Corps, etc. These volunteers work alongside and at the direction of the entity that activates them. These trained volunteers are “surge support” for what is needed.

The goal of the exercise was to practice as a team with predefined processes, equipment and supplies. There is an effort for the equipment, supplies and processes countywide and with our neighboring partners to be as similar as possible. We never know where we may be when a need arises. This will provide familiarity, efficiency and expertise.

There were 115 attendees, with 73 participants involved in enacting and working a simulation of a full Shelter operation, and simultaneously an open house, emergency preparedness information tables, and drawing prizes for an adult & child Go-Bag, and Go-Bag contents.

One important key to having a resilient community and county, is to establish partnerships with those we know, train with, and have established processes with. For this exercise, there were participants from three state agencies, three local city jurisdictions, Nehalem Bay Fire & Rescue from the Fire District, Emergency Volunteer Corps of Nehalem Bay (EVCNB) Divisions, seven entities from Tillamook County and regions representing the entire county, Cannon Beach MRC & CERT teams, partners in healthcare, public works, patient care transport, community, etc. We also have partners such as City of Manzanita, City of Wheeler, Nehalem Bay Wastewater and Tillamook PUD that support community resilience by providing storage capacity for some emergency supplies. Again, these partnerships are truly critical.

If this sounds of interest to you, EVCNB is ALWAYS needing more volunteers – We would LOVE to have you find out more about how you can be involved!!

Emergency Volunteer Corps of Nehalem Bay (EVCNB) divisions:

Community Preparedness

Prepare Your Neighborhood (PYN)
Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (WaSH)

Community Response Support

Activation
Communication
Community Emergency Response Team (CERTs)
Mass Care
Nehalem Bay MRC (Tillamook County wide Unit)
Shelters

It is because of the collaboration of our communities, volunteer organizations, and emergency preparedness activities that our communities have the ability to be more resilient in the event of adversity such as annual flooding, power outages, landslides, ice storms, etc and in the event of an even bigger consequence.

First Priority “Number 1” is for each individual and household to be prepared for any type of situation. If you want to learn more, please go to EVCNB.org.

Click HERE to read the article from the Tillamook Headlight Herald covering the event.

Click HERE to read the article from the North Coast Citizen.

Photos below: courtesy of Julee Ward